A Frozen Ninety Foot Tall Plum Tree
with Ripe Fruit and Green Leaves Found North of the Arctic Circle?

Some young-earth creationists have hypothesized that "before the
Flood" the earth was' a "tropical" or "sub-tropical" paradise from
pole to pole, but with the coming of the Flood, the world's climate
was quickly and drastically altered. One piece of evidence that some
creationists have offered in support of this hypothesis are "frozen
trees bearing ripe fruit and green leaves found above the arctic
circle." Another piece of evidence offered in support are "remains of
warm weather hippos found in the tundra's frozen muck." We shall
discuss both of these unusual claims in the pieces that follow.

For starters, just try to imagine a plum tree that was 90 feet
tall! That's over 70 feet taller than the height given in World Book
Encyc. ("plum trees grow from 7 to 18 feet").

Dr. Kent Hovind (a creation evangelist who addresses hundreds of
audiences each year, speaks on radio, and is also known for offering
$10,000 for "evidence for evolution") has claimed that a 90-foot tall
plum tree with green leaves and ripe fruit was found frozen on New
Siberian Island over six hundred miles north of the Arctic circle by
the Russian arctic explorer, Baron von Toll. Dr. Hovind has
repeatedly cited this piece of evidence in his live presentations,
radio programs, and in his Creation Seminar videotapes.

Ralph Epperson (a creationist lecturer from Tucson, Arizona, also
known as a conspiracy theorist and author of The Unseen Hand: An
introduction to the Conspiratorial View of History), has claimed that
there are 50-foot tall pear trees with fruit still frozen on their
branches at the north pole.

I have been unable to track down the source of Epperson's claim
that a multitude of such frozen fruit trees exist at the north pole.
However, Dr. Hovind's claim of a single fruit tree sounded relatively
more convincing and he was able to tell me that he had read it in
Bible-Science News, "about ten years ago." After a diligent search I
pinpointed the article, "The Mystery of the Frozen Giants" by Lee
Grady [cover story, Bible-Science News, v.23, no.4, April 1985]. On
page 2, Mr. Grady stated:

Baron Toll, an Arctic explorer, found the remains of a
saber-toothed tiger and a 90-foot plum tree with ripe fruit and green
leaves -- over 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the New Siberian
Islands.

As to the source of this information Mr. Grady cited The Waters
Above (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981, p. 316) by the young-earth
creationist, Joseph Dillow. I obtained a copy of Mr. Dillow's book
and found that Dillow had stated:

Baron Toll, the Arctic explorer, found remains of a saber-toothed
tiger and a 90-foot plum tree with green leaves and ripe fruit on its
branches over 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the New Siberian
Islands.

Bolshoi Lyakhov is the most southerly of the group [of
New Siberian Islands]... It was along the south coast [of that island]
that Toll found his extraordinary layers of what he called "fossil
ice." They were as much as 70 ft. thick. On the top of them lay the
post-Tertiary deposits in which were remains of wooly rhinoceros and
mammoth, American stag, reindeer, a horse (apparently the Mongolian
wild horse, which still exists), saiga, antelope, ovibos, and
sabre-toothed tiger. There was lying among them, too, a 90
ft. alder-tree (Alnus fructicosa), with even its roots and seeds
preserved.

Note that the tree spoken of by Digby was not a "plum" tree
(Prunus is the name for "plum tree"), but an alder-tree (Alnus is the
name for "alder") which is related to the birch family.

2) Mr. Dillow's second source of information was the Transactions
of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia For
Promoting Useful Knowledge, New Series, Volume XXII, Part 1, "The
Carcasses of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros Found in the Frozen Ground of
Siberia," by I.P. Tolmachoff (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical
Society, 1929). Tolmachoff agreed with Digby (above) that the tree
which Baron von Toll discovered was not a "plum" tree (Prunus) but an
alder (Alnus):

Toll...had opportunities of collecting, within the
tundra ground, leaves, roots and fine branches of plants like Alnus
fruticosa .. which are not to be found there now, but grow in more
southern latitudes (p.47)

When Alnus fruticosa was growing on
the New Siberian Islands they were connected with the continent which
at that time thus had protruded about four degrees farther north as
compared with the recent shore line of the mainland. The retreat of
the forests might have been caused by the separation of the New
Siberian Islands, although the climate, generally speaking can have
suffered very little change, if any. (p. 48)

... Alnus
fruticosa which in the New Siberian Islands had been discovered first
by Toll in the ground of the upper recent tundra, where the latter
located, of course, the mammoth-horizon. (p. 54)

Attentive readers may have noticed that Digby stated the name of
the tree was Alnus fructicosa, and "fructicosa" is indeed used to
describe "fruit-bearing" species. However the use of "fructicosa" is
simply an error (or perhaps a misspelling made by the typesetter of
Digby's manuscript). Because any check of the list of botanical
species shows there is no such species as Alnus "fructicosa." Of
course Tolmachoff employed the correct spelling, "fruticosa" (without
the "c"), which refers to a "bushy tree" which does not grow to be
extremely tall. Baron von Toll in the original report (cited below)
also stated that the tree was an Alnus fruticosa, not "fructicosa." So
we know for certain that the original description was of a bushy
species of alder, and not a fruit-bearing "plum" tree.

3. similar layers with Pisidium sp. and
Valvata sp. The reclining nature of this layer is covered here. In
figure 1 these same layers 1 and 2 form the upper horizon, only the
deposit of the sea basin with Pisidium and Alvata is missing there.

The surprising thing in this instance is the discovery of
Alnus fruticosa which is so wonderfully preserved that the leaves
hold fast on the twigs of the boughs -- indeed even whole clusters of
blossom casings are preserved. The bark of the twigs and stems is
fully intact, all the stems of the Alnus fruticosa along with the
roots, in the length of 15-20 feet, jut out of the profile as can be
seen in both figures of the table. With a magnifying glass, one can
even recognize in figure 2 the blossom casings of the Alnus
fructicosa. These findings provide evidence that a vegetation which
today reaches its northern limit 4 degrees to the south on the
mainland was predominant at that time on the Great Ljachow Island
below 74 degrees and that these remnants could not have floated here
from afar but grew here at this site. (p. 60 -- translation by Prof.
Jerry Cox, Furman University, May 1994)

Notice that the color of the leaves is not referred to in Toll's
paper. They were probably brownish, desiccated and shriveled, with at
most, traces of greenish color here and there. The original sources
are simply silent as to this matter.

A photograph of the alder that Toll discovered is reproduced below
(= "figure 2" from Baron v. Toll's original monograph):

Having compared statements in Joseph Dillow's book, The Waters
Above (cited in Bible-Science News) with the original sources, we
arrive at these conclusions:

1) Contrary to statements made in the two creationist publications
(cited above), Baron von Toll did not discover a frozen "plum" tree.
He found the remnants of an alder. And speaking of the particular
species of alder that Toll discovered, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
had this to say, "Alnus fruticosa .. is found in the Northeast
European USSR, in the Urals [an alpine mountain range], in
northern
regions of Western Siberia, and in Eastern Siberia." [emphasis added
-- ed.] [from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, trans. of the 3rd ed.,
Moscow, 1977 (New York: MacMillan, 1981), v. 18, P. 6] Furthermore,
the black alder (Alnus glutinosa) grows where glaciers are currently
retreating in Alaska. So, finding remains of an alder does not
constitute evidence of a "tropical" or even a "sub-tropical" climate.

2) Contrary to statements made in the creationist publications,
there was no "ripe fruit" on the tree's branches. The only "fruit" of
an alder is a single-seeded, winged nutlet, which resembles a tiny
cone much like the larger ones found on pine trees. This nutlet also
remains on the branches long after the seed has dropped from it.

3) Contrary to statements made in the creationist publications,
neither Baron von Toll, nor Digby, nor Tolmachoff, ever stated that
the leaves on the tree were "green."

4) Contrary to statements made in the creationist publications
(and in Digby's book), there is no mention of the tree being "90 ft."
In the original report Baron von Toll stated that "The bark of the
twigs and stems is fully intact, all the stems of the Alnus fruticosa
along with the roots, in the length of 15-20 feet, jut out of the
profile as can be seen in both figures of the table." The sentence is
a little difficult to interpret, but Toll seems to be stating that the
tree's length, including stems and roots, was "15-20 ft." and that
some of the stems and roots were "jutting" out of the ice layer, or,
"profile" that they were laying in. This would agree with the fact
that the "bushy" species of alder, Alnus fruticosa, is known to grow
to be about 19 and a half ft. tall [see the Great Soviet Encyclopedia,
under "Alnus (alder)"], not "90 ft." (This leaves open the question
where Digby may have obtained the "90 ft." figure. One guess is that
he may have added the "70 ft." maximum thickness of all the "fossil
ice" layers with the "15-20 ft." figure for the tree that Toll
gave. 70 and 20 makes 90! However, in that case, Digby misunderstood
what Toll was originally talking about. For instance, Toll did not
say that the tree extended through all the "fossil ice" layers, nor
did he say that it was standing "upright." Toll says it was found in a
"frozen sandy clay layer," i.e., not extending through all the fossil
ice layers. So, it was lying horizontally in one specific layer. The
photograph further demonstrates that it was lying horizontally since
the hand-sized pick axe seen in the upper middle of figure 2 is lying
on flat ground next to a horizontally spread out tree. Either way,
the fact remains that Toll's original report does not mention "90 ft."
in reference to this discovery.)

5) That the alder had roots, twigs, stems, leaves and blossom
casings demonstrates that it was not transported in a cataclysmic
Flood to the island, but it probably grew there, at a time when the
New Siberian Islands were connected to the mainland, which would have
extended the forest limit further north [Tolmachoff, p. 47-48].

Alders are most often found beside rivers and springs, either in
alpine regions or in northern latitudes. It is possible that the tree
originally grew on the edge of a river which increased in flow during
a seasonal thaw that loosened the tree's soil and roots. It fell, and
was quickly covered with mud, which later froze. For instance, the
tree was found in a "frozen, sandy, clay layer." That Toll found only
a single tree instead of a forest-full of such specimens, proves that
the tree's preservation was a rare and lucky circumstance.

6) What about the bone of the saber-toothed tiger that was found
in the same "frozen sandy clay" as the alder? Unfortunately, one bone
can tell us little about the climate. As Tolmachoff stated in his
paper (P. 71), "[Baron von] Toll ... did not distinguish between
primary and secondary localities of fossil mammals in the New Siberian
Islands. Our knowledge of different fossil mammals there is very
unequal. We have, for example, little doubt that the musk ox was an
Arctic animal, like its recent representatives, and that it used to
live and die out along with the mammoth and rhinoceros. But we know,
for example, very little about the tiger the remnants of which were
found in the New Siberian Islands. Was it also an animal well adapted
to Arctic conditions, or did it lack such an adaptation, making the
change of climate [which Tolmachoff believes took place over a very
long period of time - ed.] fatal for it? Did it formerly live in the
New Siberian Islands, or were the few bones found brought over there
by rivers [i.e., at a time when the island was connected to the
mainland -- ED.]?"

In other words, did saber-toothed tigers adapt to a cold climate,
developing thicker skin and fur, and follow and feast on migrating
herds of other cold-adapted mammals? That's not an unrealistic
possibility. The island on which the few saber-toothed tiger bones
were found is the southernmost of the New Siberian Islands and
geologists contend that it was once part of the mainland. And the
climate may at that time have been less severe. Even today that
particular island is inhabited by Arctic foxes (which are hunted
there), and by northern deer and lemming. And, during the two months
of summer that the island enjoys, it is filled with muddy swamps and
abundant bird life. [See the Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopedia
Britannica and The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, under "New Siberian
Islands," "Liakhov Islands," and, "Bolshoi Lyakhov Island."] And
speaking of other large mammalian carnivores adapted to a cold
climate, there's the snow leopard, a large whitish cat with dark
blotches and long thick fur that inhabits the mountains of Central
Asia; and, of course, the polar bear.

In summation, the story that Baron von Toll found a "plum tree
with ripe fruit and green leaves," growing six hundred miles north of
the arctic circle does not agree with Toll's original statements. The
Waters Above, a book by young-earth creationist writer, Joseph Dillow,
inaccurately represented data contained in the works of Digby and
Tolmachoff. Neither Digby nor Tolmachoff wrote that the tree which
Toll found was a "plum tree," bearing "ripe fruit," and having
"green leaves." Neither did Dillow check the original source, Baron
von Toll's paper. It is hoped that this creationist fable will no
longer be repeated by young-earth creationists. Kent Hovind has
already admitted to dropping this tale from his repertoire.